Many sports simulation board games have been developed not only to challenge and entertain, but also to simulate the feel of actual games. One of these games is the American baseball simulation board game.
Baseball is well adapted for a board simulation game. A baseball game has two teams of nine players each. The objective of each team is to win by scoring more runs than the opponent. Two teams play in turn between offense and defense. The offense team has each of its players in order attempt to hit the baseball thrown by a pitcher, who is positioned toward the home plate where the batter stands. A catcher squats behind home plate catching the ball thrown by the pitcher. The pitcher and the catcher are parts of the defense team, and other positions can be defined as pitcher, catcher, first-base, second-base, third base, shortstop, left fielder, center fielder, and center fielder.
Depending upon the location of the thrown baseball relative to the hitter and home plate, the pitch may be considered a ball or strike or may be hit by the batter if contact is made. Runs are typically scored by batters hitting singles, doubles, triples, and home runs which enable the batters to run from one base to the next and eventually to home plate to record the run. Each offensive player is permitted only three strikes before being called out.
Four balls are considered a walk, meaning the batter is allowed to advance onto the first base. A Ball is a pitch that not entering the strike zone in flight and is not swung at by the batter. If the pitch touches the ground and bounces through the strike zone it is a xe2x80x9cball.xe2x80x9d If such a pitch touches the batter, he shall be awarded first base.
The offensive player is out if a hit baseball is caught in the air by a defensive player within the playing field or in foul territory. The batter is out if the batter fails to run onto a respective base before he is thrown out at that respective base.
Classic simulated baseball board games were designed for dice play, in which players roll dice to simulate most of the movements happened on a baseball field, for example, a strike, a ball, a hit, or a run. In other words, the movements of the game are determined by how the die (or dice) rests after the player rolls the die (or dice).
However, one main disadvantage of this type of game is that it fails to truly simulate or represent the actual playing conditions of baseball. That is to say that rolling dice or spinning a spinner does not bear any relation to the skills and odds involved in a baseball game. These skills including pitching the baseball such that the batter misses his swing, hitting the baseball to score runs, and the positions the defense players field.
Other kinds of the previous development of simulated baseball board games are more advanced, by using batting and pitching mechanisms on the game board to simulate ball movement, having racks with lever attached to spring and handle simulating batting mechanism, and miniature mechanical defense fielders.
The disadvantage of some mechanical baseball games is that they fail to show the odds of playing a real baseball game. Odds for registering hits based on statistically proved samples show that, the chance for a single-base hit should be significantly higher than a third-base hit, and the odds for groundouts should be similar to fly outs.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to develop a two player simulated baseball board game having a pitching mechanism, a batting mechanism and a fielding mechanism with a simulated baseball board game with a playfield in which it can be reflected to and truly simulates to the baseball game in real.